Originally Posted by pharasz

Wow this thread is timely for me. I weigh 190 and I ride with panniers loaded with clothes and a lap top, so it's pretty heavy. I have a Bianchi Volpe touring bike with 28 cc tires and heavy rims (heavy compared to my road bike).

After the 2nd broken spoke in two months, my bike mechanic told me I needed heavier spokes, so he put them on for me. One week later the wheel was out of true and a couple of spokes were very loose, but none broke. He trued it for me again, and said he tightened all of the spokes down real tight. It's been two weeks and so far so good. But I'm not confident this will last...